Step 9 of 10
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Forge die building: why this course exists
The eight decisions that set forge die life before the first hit, and why the build is a chain where the weakest link sets the floor.
Step 9 of 10Weighting the eight decisions
The eight decisions are not equally weighted on every job. The dominant failure mode sets the weighting. Heat checking pushes weight to decisions 1 and 4. Galling pushes weight to decision 7. Cracking through a corner radius pushes weight to decisions 2 and 4. Edge wear pushes weight to decisions 1 and 7. The skill is reading the application, identifying the failure mode the die will scrap on, then allocating engineering effort across the eight decisions accordingly. The wrong weighting is what produces the 50K-cycle die from the same drawing as the 200K-cycle die.
Quick check
A short-run aluminum-forging die is scrapping at 12,000 cycles by adhesive pickup on the cavity wall, not by cracking and not by edge wear. The shop's first instinct is to upgrade from standard H13 to premium ESR H13. Why is that instinct wrong, and what decision number is the actual lever?